ISA YUSUF ALPTEKIN, 'MEMORANDUM SENT TO RICHARD NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA'

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Memorandum sent by Isa Yusuf Alptekin, President of the Center for the Liberation of East Turkestan, to President Richard Nixon about the necessity to include the people of East Turkestan among 'captive nations.' This letter was published in Isa Yusuf Alptekin's Turkish language book "Doğu Türkistan İnsanlıktan Yardım İstiyor" (East Turkistan Expects Help from Humankind).

"Isa Yusuf Alptekin, 'Memorandum Sent to Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America'," July 12, 1969, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Isa Yusuf Alptekin, Doğu Türkistan İnsanlıktan Yardım İstiyor (East Turkistan Expects Help from Humankind) (Otağ Matbaası, 1974): 112-113. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/208601

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MEMORANDUM SENT TO RICHARD NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Mr. Richard Nixon,

President of the United States of America

Washington

Excellency,

The honorable president of the United States, the most imminent protector of captive nations; I address you as the representative of a sorrowful and captive nation who has never lost hope.

The proclamation of the “Captive Nations Week”, proposed on June 22, 1959 by Senator Douglas and his 18 friends, and began on July 19 with the July 17 Decree of the late president D. Eisenhower, has been one of our biggest sources of hope. For this, we are grateful to the United States. We are hopeful and pleased that the US, as a fortress of liberty, is protecting captive nations.

Excellency,

We have been extremely sad about an issue that went unnoticed in the concurrent resolution proposed to the Senate by Senator Douglas and his 18 friends. In the resolution and the decree, captive nations suffering under imperialist Russian rule are mentioned one by one, however, the name of the people in East Turkestan, which faces the danger of disappearing on the face of the earth under Red Chinese imperalism, is not mentioned among them. In the geography what the concurrent resolution labels as “Mainland China,” captive nations are present in East Turkestan, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Manchuria: and as you already know, these nations have no historical, geographical, and ethnic ties to China. The people of East Turkestan to have never had connection to China, on the contrary, it is well known that they belonge to a completely different nation, the Turkic nation, in terms of origin, language, religion, and culture.

It will give us speed and enthusiasm in our struggly for liberty if East Turkestan, which has no geographical, historical, or ethnic connection to China, is treated and mentioned in the resolution, side by side with captive Tibet, as having a distinct identity.

Assured that you will show interest and affection to the sensitivity of the oppressed and innocent people of East Turkestan, I offer my deep regards.

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Memorandum sent by Isa Yusuf Alptekin, President of the Center for the Liberation of East Turkestan, to President Richard Nixon about the necessity to include the people of East Turkestan among 'captive nations.' This letter was published in Isa Yusuf Alptekin's Turkish language book "Doğu Türkistan İnsanlıktan Yardım İstiyor" (East Turkistan Expects Help from Humankind).

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